Landfill not breaking any laws by stringing up gulls

During these waning weeks of winter, a perpetually shifting cloud hovers over the Crawford County landfill east of Bucyrus, comprised of dozens and dozens of hungry gulls.

The animals have drawn the attention of local bird watchers, keen to spy rare gull species diving into the mounds of trash looking for food. What they didn't expect to see were a pair of dead gulls, strung up by their necks and hanging from a metal rod, as if in effigy.

The dead birds, spotted by several visitors to the county's recycling center about a week ago, have since been taken down, or at least moved out of public view, an employee of Santec Environmental Services said over the phone before abruptly hanging up.

Santec has not broken any laws by hanging up the dead gulls. Every gull species — in fact, virtually every migratory bird in the United States — is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but Santec has a depredation permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowing it to harvest up to 75 herring or ring-billed gulls from Jan. 1 of this year through the end of April 2016.

"They've harvested a few and strung up a few. I contacted the name on the permit and said I've gotten some complaints. I suggested it might be a good idea, if they were willing, to move those gulls, and it sounds like they did that," Jason Parr, wildlife officer for Crawford County, said.

"They haven't done anything wrong, but it's probably not the best thing to put them up where everyone can see them."

Several wildlife officials expressed surprise at the landfill's ploy, undertaken in an attempt to keep other gulls away from the site. None had heard of such a thing before, and all seriously doubted its effectiveness, even as they sympathized with the landfill's plight.

"I imagine they've been making a mess of their equipment," Warren Uxley, a Crawford Park District naturalist, said. "But there's a very real possibility that's doing more harm than good."

John Windau, a wildlife communications officer for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, noted hunters commonly use decoys to attract birds, "so I don't know if that's helping or hurting them," he said. "As far as displaying them, I don't know if that would work."

On a recent weekday, several gulls could be seen over the active part of the landfill, while crows were found in abundance throughout the area.

"Crows have a very different behavior. Their social interaction is very unique in the bird world, and dead crows would scare other crows away," Mark Shieldcastle, research director for the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor, said.

"Gulls might just feed on the dead gulls. Dead gulls in colonies are usually totally ignored, but they could actually be an attractant."

Currently, all bodies of water across the northern half of Ohio, from farm ponds to Lake Erie, are frozen, shutting off gulls' principal food sources — fish and winter-mortality waterfowl. Facilities like the Crawford County landfill serve as an alternative food source during times of scarcity such as these.

"The gull residents they get there are typically ring-billed gulls, and once in a while some herring gulls," Uxley said. "Recently, there have been sightings of black-backed gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, and even glaucous gulls, which is really unusual."

Santec has a depredation permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, allowing it to string up the dead gulls. Airports typically acquire such permits to rid their runways of Canada geese. The federal government also allows permits for the taking of migratory birds for taxidermy, falconry, propagation, and scientific and educational use. Indian tribes must acquire a permit to use eagle feathers in religious ceremonies.

More than 1,000 bird species are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, to which the U.S., Canada and Mexico are bound. That's essentially every bird in North America with the exception of the European starling, one of the most successful invasive species on the continent, the house sparrow, pigeons, and non-migratory game birds.

"It's not as well-known as the Endangered Species Act, but in some respects it's even stronger. It's the governing act for most migratory species, and the strongest piece of legislation for wildlife ever created in the world. It's an extremely important act," Shieldcastle said.

As for the county landfill's gull problem, wildlife experts had several suggestions, from flags to owl decoys, eye balloons or carbide cannons.

"Any of those would have a greater success potential, without any of the negative connotations," Shieldcastle said.